Taiwan has moved up a notch to become the world’s third-best investment destination in this year’s rankings by US-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence SA, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday last week.
Taiwan scored 68 points in its overall profit opportunities recommendation rating, a rise from fourth place in an April report, and is now ranked behind only Switzerland and Singapore, the ministry’s Department of Investment Services said.
The company releases a survey on the investment climates and business risks of the world’s 50 major economies in April, August and December every year.
The report gave Taiwan’s overall investment climate a “1B” rating, which means investors can consider making long-term investments in the country’s stock market.
Taiwan emerged as the world’s safest place to invest in terms of foreign exchange and external account risk; the sixth in the world and first in Asia in operations risk; and the 13th worldwide and sixth in Asia in political risk.
Meanwhile, the EU said it “remains committed” to signing a bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan, but must still complete the “preparatory” phase, involving technical work, including information gathering, before it can conduct an impact assessment and start negotiations, European Economic and Trade Office head Madeleine Majorenko said on Friday last week.
Taiwan has expressed its desire to start negotiations with the EU on a treaty to enhance bilateral business and trade for many years, but progress has been slow.
“Everybody understands Taiwan’s wish to move forward. We fully understand it,” Majorenko said in an interview with the Central News Agency, “but we still think a little bit more work can be done and we have internal procedure on our side, which always takes a bit of time.”
Majorenko said that the highest political levels in Brussels are discussing how the EU can take this issue forward, but technical work continues, including learning about each other to prepare for the next step — conducting an impact assessment.
Such an assessment would examine likely effects of a deal on the environment, society, labor and the economy in the EU, she said.
The EU remains the largest investor in Taiwan, with foreign direct investment stocks of 44.67 billion euros (US$51.96 billion), a recent trade office report said
Last year, 43 percent of all inbound investment to Taiwan came from the EU, whereas in the same period, Taiwanese investment in the EU was very low, amounting to only US$220 million, or 1.9 percent of Taiwan’s overseas investment, the report said.
“We are the biggest investor here and we would like to see more Taiwanese investment in Europe,” Majorenko said.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
RSS